British Military Fitness Part 9
Second day of the week out for British Military Fitness, and it looked like it was going to rain today, I wasn’t hopeful on waking up to -2 deg in the mobile, so I figured it was going to be a hard session.
Tonight was Andy’s session to run, it is a lottery for that, you turn up, never knowing what you are going to get, a bit like Forest Gump! He hit the spot anyway by saying it was going to be boxfit, something I had particularly been looking forward to trying my hand at.
The instructions were very clear, partner up and do not try and hit the pads hard, it is not about hitting the pads hard, it is about cardio workout. I was slightly concerned at these instructions. Those of you who know me will probably guess why, there are two reasons for that. Firstly, Im a big bloke (overweight, or just big boned as Cartman would say), even just swinging my arm gently tends to knock people over because of the sheer weight behind it. Secondly, I have spent my whole life in martial arts putting weight into my fists, it is as natural as walking and so when they hit, they hit hard. All that being said, I felt it fair to assess my basic level of fitness to put this all into perspective for those of you who do not know me.
Im severely, morbidly overweight, on a scale of 1 to 10 for cardio ability, 1 being low and 10 being high, I would give myself a firm 0.5. I do however have a world of recovery behind me, and so even though I tire very very quickly, I am able to recover just as quickly.
So we did a basic warm up whilst learning the four basic punches required, at slow speed I was more than capable of holding back on the weight, this isnt just a power punch for me, but the transfer of grounded weight, from ground to foot, through hip, and out into the pad beyond. Pulling these back meant that the weight was firing just prior of the pad and so not causing any problems. As soon as the panic kicked in with racing against the others and putting in running and exercises, that all went out the window. Unfortunately the weight missed its correct transfer and went into Hettie’s arm and she looked like it had hurt her, though she covered it well.
I was honestly, well able to cope with the punches, training meant I can keep going because I am not using a muscular force to move the arms, it is more of a tendon/ligament mind movement which does not affect the muscles at all. Note to self, work on applying this technique to running and see if I can do it for longer because I am not using the muscles. Thinking logically I cannot see this working as my problem is not muscle fatigue but cardio failure.
Had a great bit of banter with Josh, who took Monday’s class, and I was winding him up by saying how much harder this was than his. Of course this now means he will break me on the next session, but that is part of the military ethos. It is the banter that motivates and pits you against yourself and your comrades. Constantly seeking to better yourself. This was the reason I chose British Military Fitness in the first instance. I knew it would engender this fundamental feeling in me, coupled with the banter in my office where I work. I am making my changes and it feels really good.
I am not going to put down my weight but let us call it X pounds. I will detail the weight as taken at weekends on the Wednesday blog, so you may or may not see changes in that weight. I thank each and every one of you for your support, kindness and help in this. I am really enjoying it. Thank you!
Related articles
- How To Get Nice Muscle Tone And Build An Attractive Muscular Body (glasby-sam.blogspot.com)
- Strength Training and Personal Training: the Key to Build Muscles (rebellconditioning.wordpress.com)
- British Military Fitness Part 6 (paulricketts.co.uk)